It’s so tempting to get carried away, to take a game like the Canadiens played Thursday against the best team in the NHL and make it into more than it is.

It’s tempting because of just how well the Canadiens played, how dangerous they were in the offensive zone, how fast they looked as a team, how strikingly different they were to the team that trudged through the last month with three wins in 12 games.

It’s tempting because Claude Julien told his best players that he was going to challenge them in public to lead this team out of this mess, and by and large his best players were his best players in this game. Because Max Pacioretty ended a 13-game goal drought and tends to go on hot streaks when he does that, because Alex Galchenyuk was flying all over the ice, because Jonathan Drouin was dangerous.

It’s tempting because Carey Price won a memorable goaltending duel with Andrei Vasilevskiy highlighted by a save that defied the laws that govern the...

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